Mary's Story
by Uninformed Otaku
Summary: The story of that painting, before Ib's visit to the gallery.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hello! This is a story I've been thinking about writing for a while and I'm not too sure how it came out, but I will share it none the less!

It's quite a bit longer than I intended, but most of that is because I literally transcribed the content of the Ib game into the story (or at least did my best to). That said, of course I can't take credit for that part of the content, which belongs to the original makers of the Ib game. (Aren't they wonderful?) So, **if you are fairly familiar with the game you may want to do a lot of skimming while reading this story.**

My contribution was put simply changing the perspective and adding or altering the details that make it 'Mary's Story'. I hope you like the concept as much as I do. c: I also hope it won't be too hard for you to follow along, and pick out the parts that are new and not just repeat of the Ib game.

I did my best to rid typos, but my apologies for any that escape my notice, and there are a couple rough patches in this story where I had to really wrestle with the plot to make it fit, but I hope you can all enjoy it regardless of it's flaws! It will be about five chapters I believe, and I'll be releasing them pretty rapidly (since everything is already typed out. Basically it will just take me some time to do a final read through of the chapter before I post it.) I might add one more A/N at the end, but that will be all. Oh look, I always make these too long!

Ib does not belong to me, nor do any of the characters, nor the original plot of the game!

* * *

The sun cast a warmly glowing light on the green leaves of trees and short bundles of bushes. The short blades of grass were also peacefully cast under this light, until the girl's black shoes stormed past at a brisk pace.

She was on her way to see her friend. It got lonely now and then out here, although she always had her family. Town was not too far away either, but it wasn't the same. Perhaps the same serenity and potential of the wide valley that made her love it was also what made this friend so special to her.

He lived so close to her amongst the plants and the earth. She went to visit him every day, ever since she had found him out here. A shallow body of water she liked to call a lake was in sight, their special place to meet.

She continued at her excited pace until she reached the edge of the water, and dropped down to her knees in front of it. She was careful with her green dress, not to get it muddy or dirty or her mother would complain. Her faint blonde curls reflected in the water as she leaned forward.

"I'm here… will you tell me about another one today?"

He always described such wonderful images for her. She loved to hear him gush about his work, even though normally a child might be bored with such things.

"I wish I could see them…"

It wasn't an impossible wish, was it? They way he talked, she felt like she could already see them. In fact it seemed to her like his promise to her that she could see them someday. It was the silly fantasy of a child, but it was her dream. On that day, she would be able to meet him too. _I can't wait to meet you… Guertena._

* * *

She hadn't visited today, and it was getting late, but she had to go. The light wasn't that bad. It was the time of the year when the sunlight lasted for longer in the day. It would be safe to go and have a quick visit. She was in a rush, so she had to run.

"Mary! Dinner will be ready soon!"

She turned back towards the house to call back,

"I'll be back soon!"

She quickened her pace until she reached the lake, careful not to slide to a stop and get mud on her shoes, and lifting up her dress a little. It wasn't very wet this close to the lake, but she wanted to be safe. It would be less for her mother to worry about.

Mary walked closer and saw something written in her spot near the edge. _Come in?_ she repeated, and leaned a little closer over the water. _In there?_

The water seemed strange today. There was a shadow near the bottom in some kind of shape. Mary turned her head a bit trying to figure out what it might be, but she wasn't sure she had seen anything exactly like it. Perhaps it was a fish?

She didn't want to get wet and dirty, and she needed to hurry, but if her friend wanted her to…

Mary squinted her eyes a bit, and cautiously took her first steps. The water wasn't deep, so it couldn't be dangerous. She went farther into the water, but it began to feel strange. She quickly began to fear she had lost her footing, but she hadn't fallen.

She must have slipped underground somehow, because this was much deeper than the lake appeared from the surface. As it became clearer around her, she could see it didn't look like a lake at all. How curious she was not wet and there was no more water around.

"Guertena?" she called out, at the top of the steps.

The hallway was a bit dark, but it had a blue color to it. Mary climbed down the steps and saw there were two directions she could go. She hoped perhaps she would finally see her friend, and he would help to guide her, but after waiting a moment there was no sign of him and it was getting creepy. Besides, she still needed to hurry.

On each side of the stairs, there was a painting of what Mary thought looked like floating rocks. They were identical to each other, except that the background in one was blue and the other was red. She went down the blue painting side first.

It was just a dead end. There was a door, but it was blocked by a small table with a vase on top. _That would be a good place for a flower,_ she thought. Maybe next time she could bring one, and brighten up this place.

Mary tried to move the table out of the way, and found it wasn't that heavy. Inside was a key on the floor, and another paining. It was a gently smiling lady, but her hair looked like it came off the canvas! It was very realistic. _So this is your work, Guertena?_

She got closer to see how it worked, but couldn't understand how it was painted so cleverly. She took the key on the way out, getting a strange chill down her spine. Thinking about her mother waiting, she started to think it would be good to come back and explore another time.

When Mary reached the two paintings again, she was shocked. The staircase had disappeared! How was she going to get back now? She looked down the remaining hallway. It was all that was left now. There must have been another exit somewhere.

Feeling a bit more cautious now, Mary pressed on. She reached another room that was a pretty shade of green. There were pictures of different insects adorning the wall, and a small ant on the ground. Mary had almost not seen it, and nearly stepped on it by mistake.

"Oh, sorry."

"It's ok. I'm an ant. I love paintings. My painting is especially cool." She was surprised it talked, but continued on. Other paintings depicted a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Mary liked that set a lot. She found another door, but the room was impassable because of a hole in the floor.

She had no choice but to go the other way. There she found some paper and a quill scattered on the floor. Mary picked it up on her way, thinking it might be good if she got lost and needed to make a map, or needed to remember something important.

She took her step around a support column, and barely made it through the hall. A hand jumped out at her, causing her to shriek and shrink to the other side. She edged a bit farther down, only for another hand to grab out at her. Mary dropped the pencil and paper, but snatched them up again before running back to safety.

For a long time Mary was frozen, and wanted to cry. She ran back the way she had come and tried to look for the stairs again, but they were still gone. Eventually she returned to the green colored room. She swallowed nervously, and made her first important note.

"Beware the edges."

After that she couldn't put it off any longer, and hoped she was right. Mary ran screaming down the hallway as even more hands sprouted out and grabbed for her, but she was right and they could not reach her from the center.

Once she was safe again, she stared back at the hands for a long time. _Mr. Guertena, is this also… your art?_ She couldn't wrap her head around it. It was hard to move forward again, but she had to. There was no place else to go.

The green door was locked, but luckily Mary found the key by another table. She turned the lock and let the door slowly open, sticking her head out warily to see what was ahead. The sight made the tension in her heart ease, when she saw the wall oddly resembled a cat.

_How cute,_ she thought and stepped the rest of the way into the room. There was no more turning back now. Mary couldn't bear to run though those hands again. She shivered just thinking about it. Instead she approached the cat like wall, and placed a hand on the spot that was shaped rather like a fish.

She sucked in a deep breathe, already uncertain of the path ahead of her again, and looked left and right for some sign of which was the correct path to take. She fearfully decided on left, and found this room was filled with sections of walls.

All of them had curtains on them, except for one with a black stick figure sketched on it. Mary paused to look at it before trying to walk past, only to jump when something in the corner of her eyes changed. Her head whipped back and she saw writing had appeared from no where. _Guertena?_ She hoped, and moved closer to read it.

'Play hide and seek?' Mary had barely finished reading when the stick figure vanished, to where Mary could only guess. She felt relieved somehow, surely that wouldn't be so bad. She took a long time to make her choice, and finally pulled back the curtains to see if what hung behind them. She smiled for the first time, having found the stick figure in a real picture on her first try.

She jumped for the second time when the new writing appeared beside it, but only took a moment to calm her heart again.

'Found me, you get prize.' She read it before she heard a thump. She slowly made her way to the north end of the room, where another picture of a knife chopping a fish was placed. Below it a wooden fish head had appeared. Mary smiled, feeling clever that she could figure out what she needed to move forward.

The room on the right was next. Mary sneaked into it and found it was full of manikins, suits of armors, statues of heads, and several boxes. She was already creeped out, but when the lights flickered she found it was still possible to increase her fear. _I want to get out of here_, she thought, dreadfully heading towards the other side.

That was when the trembling noise caught her attention, and Mary slowly turned to face the source of it. It was moving. One of the statue heads was moving! Not only shaking, but now coming closer! _No, no, no, no, no!_ Mary backed herself into one of the boxes, putting all her will into silently begging it to stay away. She let out a short scream when it had finally come to close, and she toppled back into one of the boxes.

That was when the statue stopped and fell over, cracking open. Mary's lower lip quivered, and there was something hard under her butt in the box she had ended up in. She stood up again, and pulled out a wooden fish tail. It went together with the wooden fish head perfectly. After one more untrusting glance at the statue head, Mary tore out of the room. She couldn't stand to look at anything else, for fear it might begin to move and chase after her.

She took a moment to recollect her thoughts, and clutched the wooden fish in her hand determinedly. Mary assured herself she would get out of here soon, and her mother would be waiting for her. She would be getting worried soon, and Mary couldn't wait to be back in her arms.

With that in mind, she pushed the wooden fish into its place, and watched with awe as the cat wall's eyes changed. There was a chorus of cat noises, and a path steadily opened up in front of Mary. _How…?_ she wondered in bewilderment this time, instead of fear. Mary even laughed, and clapped for Guertena. _This is the kind of thing you make, isn't it?_ she thought to her friend. It troubled her too much to think how all the rest fit in.

Entering the next room, Mary was immediately drawn to yet another moving painting. She still didn't understand how it worked, but found it fascinating. As she grew closer to the painting with the waggling tongue, she was appalled to be suddenly spat at. She avoided its saliva by reflexively taking a step to the side, but was offended by the gesture.

She regarded it coldly, and she moved to a table holding more ink and paper for her to take. Mary was pleased with her find, and very briefly considered the painting that seemed to be blank. It had been framed, but it did not look finished, or even started yet. There was a hallway, but first Mary continued down the other side of it.

There she found a pair of lips jutting out from the wall. Mary was yet again taken by the strange and unknown feat, but this time felt unsettled by the sight. She returned to the hallway again, instead of investigating it. She could see something on the other end of the hallway, and hurried to find what it was.

She could nearly see past the corner, when another hand flew out from the wall and grasped out towards her. Mary screamed bloody murder, and shrunk to the other wall. She breathed heavily and stayed there clutching the wallpaper for quite a while before she shakily took the pen and paper in hand.

'Just when you've forgotten…' She wrote, laughing in a way that sounded more like sobs. It was almost like she was scolding herself. She had nearly started to enjoy this cursed place. It was good this had been a reminder to her, or she might have let down her guard. She turned back and set the paper down at the beginning of the hall, then sprinted past the hand again.

She was met with more shock as Mary saw that what she'd spotted past the hall before were shapes of bodies hanging from above. _Those are dolls, right?_ They were tied around there ankles by red string

Only when she saw she was safe did she approach it, before moving on to the door. There was a strange green tint around it, and some kind of code. There weren't any numbers, but there were symbols like Mary needed arithmetic. She hoped she could figure it out, but without numbers there wasn't anything for her to do.

She did finally notice that the X's where the numbers should be were all different colors, and hoped this would be of some help. She decided she needed to look around, although she wasn't looking forward to it. Mary tried to think of all the places the numbers could be hiding.

The second number she needed turned out to be with the blank painting, which actually bore the number nine on it in red. With some difficulty, Mary eventually made out the last number eighteen shaded purple on one of the dolls. She still needed the first number, which would be green, and would be found in the other room on the other side of the hall.

'The Liars Room' was the title next to the door. Mary was unsure of what it entailed. It couldn't be that there were actually people in this room. She had given up hope that she would find anyone. Even meeting her friend was beginning to become a fantasy more than the expectation she'd had when she entered this warped place.

Inside Mary found several paintings of silhouetted women, or at least Mary thought they appeared feminine, and they were wearing dresses. The color of those dresses was in fact the most noticeable difference between the paintings, aside from their poses. But how could paintings lie? Looking closer there seemed to be writing beneath the portraits.

Mary approached them, and read the various messages. 'I agree with the one in yellow.' 'The only truth speaker wears green!' 'It's dangerous in there.' 'The one in white speaks the truth.' 'The statue lies! Don't be fooled!' 'It moves if you look away. Don't be fooled!'

Some of the messages frightened Mary. She had already seen one statue move, and she would not be ready to see another any time soon. Taking a deep breath, and holding it in her chest, Mary gripped the knob and gave it a twist.

She pushed the door open and entered the room, ready to bolt out at any sign of trouble. Inside the room was empty except for the statue. Mary gulped and approached it cautiously. There were many tiles, but only one the statue appeared to be staring at directly. She drew closer and bent over slowly, not taking her eyes off the thing for a second.

Her whole body was trembling and she felt faint, but as soon as she had looked down and seen the number she darted back out. It hadn't budged an inch, but Mary quickly closed the door to prevent being chased, and let her mind catch up with her surroundings. She heard no noise, nor any signal she was being pursued.

Taking a risk and opening the door again, Mary saw the statue was immobile, as it should be. Letting her pride well up in her body, Mary turned her head up and briskly turned away from the door and the silhouettes.

"That was awfully rude of you all," she dared to inform them, "lying to me like that! I was scared to death."

She had already been so scared before entering the room, but she needed to make her point as she made her exit. Once she returned to the coded door, Mary needed to make some calculations. She remembered each of the number, and after a moment she had her answer. She found it quite fortunate she had been taught how to do these sorts of problems already, even if it was a difficult one.

Inside Mary became quite confused. There were trees all around. Had Guertena crafted these as well, or was he perhaps interested in gardening? An apple grew on one tree in particular, in front of the picture of an apple on an otherwise bare branch. Mary took it in her hands, and felt it's wooden texture.

The trees must have been sculptures than, very good ones in fact. She still felt lost seeing that this was a dead end, but took the apple with her and left the room. There must have been some trick to it. She regarded the apple as she scratched her head. It really looked realistic, good enough to eat!

_Oh!_ She realized, and made her way back to the peculiar pair of lips. She ignored the hand sticking out of the hallway, knowing it couldn't reach her for the center, and then shrieked when a second one appeared. _This is not funny!_ She shouted to herself. Mary had dropped the apple in her fright, and fortunately retrieved it before it rolled too far away.

She made it back to the lips, and held out the hand with the apple in it as far as she could. Steadily she made her approach, and nearly lost her grip again when the lips spoke to her.

"Hungry… You give food?"

Mary nodded. Beginning her approach yet again, and letting the lips take the wooden apple in the place of grasp of its mouth. It really sounded as though it ate it, and she even saw what looked like its teeth.

"This tasty… I let you pass… Go through my mouth…" it spoke again.

Mary was slightly taken aback at the suggestion. It had opened it's lips wide enough for her to pass, and it's tongue was even laid out like a carpet on the floor, but surely it didn't expect her to fall for such a trick. She couldn't go through there! However… she couldn't go back either. There was no other path for her to take.

So, with uncertainty clear in her heart, Mary closed her eyes for a silent moment before she trudged into the mouth's depths. The new hall she entered was a relief from what she had feared would be behind the lips. There seemed to be another series of paintings on the wall. This device was called a guillotine if memory served something from the Middle Ages perhaps.

She watched the blade rise up and up and up, and then it had gone. Mary stopped. It couldn't possibly be… There was no painting of it coming down, so what did that mean? She looked at the stairs in front of her. That was absurd, dangerous, probably deadly. Even that surpassed the expectations she had formed of this situation.

Everything else that had happened hadn't been this terrible, but… Mary couldn't be too careful, that was for sure. She slipped off her shoes, the easiest thing she had to toss with her, and tossed them away in front of her. Nothing happened. Mary clutched on to the quill and paper she had been carrying, and then threw those in front of her as well.

Again nothing had happened. Could she have been imagining it? Was it really not what it seemed. Mary was doubtful, but pressed on, and nearly froze with fear when she realized this time something was indeed falling. There was no way she would get out of the way now, but as luck would have it her footing went wrong. She slipped on some of the paper she had tossed, and began to slide down the stairs.

It hurt to fall like that, and continue sliding down quite a few steps, but when she had stopped Mary was grateful. It had probably saved her life. The blade began to draw back up, so Mary quickly gathered her things so she could move forward again before it had a chance to try it's descent another time.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Ok, I said I wasn't going to put any more A/N's but the first chapter accidentally contained the entire second chapter so that was a thing I needed to fix, and wanted to let people know. My apologies for the mix up and any inconvenience!

The original plot, characters, and other content of the Ib game do not belong to me.

* * *

By the end of the stairs the walls had changed color to red, and there wasn't yet any sign of the halls widening into rooms. She couldn't help but wonder what was happening to her now. She knew all of this should be impossible, but she had seen everything so quickly it was impossible to deny it. The dream she'd had of returning quickly was long gone.

There was only one hope left, and that was to find the end of this place at all. _How could he do this to me?_ Mary wondered. Yes, her 'friend,' and what of him? She hadn't seen a single sign of life, 'friend' or otherwise, unless she counted the specter like movements or lips jutting out of walls, and Mary as a matter of fact did not. Even her fear was running out now, perhaps what she felt was emptiness.

She nearly laughed thinking that. That emptiness wouldn't last when her next horrible surprise decided to spring up. There was no 'if' another surprise happened. Until she got out of this place Mary was filled with certainty that more awaited her.

A painting she passed was called 'Breath', but Mary hardly spared it a glance. She had come here to look at her friend's works, true, after hearing so much good about them but she had grown tired. She was sure there would be plenty more ahead to look at, ones that would probably present more puzzles and riddles that got in her way.

Another small table by a red door marked the end of the hall. Mary took the chance to make sure her quill was still writing ready, and her paper was plenty. Perhaps she needed to be making more notes, with everything that had happened. The room behind the door quite resembled a gallery or a showcase of some sort.

In addition to the paintings, there were even some sculptures. Mary would have been wary of them, but the way they were displayed she thought perhaps she didn't need to fear them. That said, she was keeping a weary eye out. A large blue statue was on the left, a red on the front; a painting hung in the center of them. Behind that painting there was a door, although were it would lead Mary wasn't certain.

On the left of the door were two more paintings, a gentleman and some kind of device. It pulsed when it had Mary's attention. _Clever,_ she thought sourly, seeing the name. On the other side were two more paintings, one called heart wounds and one of a lady in red.

"The Lady in Red," it was fittingly called. No sooner than Mary had noticed its title did it begin to move. This was not like the 'Heartbeat' at all. Mary screamed shortly as its torso came clear out of it's frame, and hands thrust out in front of her. She fled away from the terrible painting, but with an animalistic screech the thing began to use it's hands to pull itself closer to her.

In a panic once again, Mary stayed out of its grasp, but struggled to find where to run. She remembered the door, and begged that it would not be locked. The Lady in Red drew closer to her, dragging along the floor. Mary turned and turned and rattled the door, but it would not open. Finally she turned her head just in time to see the painting reach out and grab her.

Mary pulled away from it, but it had grabbed her hair and dress. She thought she was done for, but somehow kicked and hit her way out of it's grasp so she was free to run again. She had no time to catch her breath and began searching for her key to safety. It was hard with the painting in pursuit, but Mary found she was indeed the faster of the two.

The painting held no help, although to their credit they also did not start moving like their other had done. The statues were her only hope. Mary needed to wait for her chance to get past the ropes when the statue was hanging around them. She needed to pick one to start with, and remembered the door was red.

When she saw her chance Mary dove for the red statue, hoping she was right and found a red key camouflaged in the color and gently leaning against it. It was a bit of a roundabout path getting to the door because of her predator, but she was able to reach the door again, and hurriedly turned the key in the lock.

On the other side there were shelves of books. Mary waited a moment more of fear to see if the painting followed her to the other side, but somehow the door kept her safe. She needed this time to regain her calm, if that was possible, and temporarily turned her attention to the books. The banging on the door was unsettling, but it assured her she could not be reached.

One of the books seemed to be jutting out, Mary noticed so she pushed it back into place. A click told her the other door had opened, and she took it as a sign it was time to press on. _Just like a game,_ she told herself. _There's no need to be frightened, if I just pretend it's a game._

She had wondered if perhaps that's what her friend thought this was like for some time now. If it was meant to be fun, Guertena had failed long ago. That didn't mean Mary wouldn't pretend, if it meant giving her the strength to go on. On the other side there were two hallways leading left and right, and a little nook with a couple small tables and a portrait of a vase near a real vase as well as more ink and paper. It really would be a nice place to keep flowers.

On the right there was a hall with another, non-threatening painting, as well as another one waggling it's tongue. Mary moved around it carefully, but it made no attempts to spit at her. She nodded in approval, and reached a door with a statue of what looked to be a knight blocking the way. Mary tried to move it over so she could get through, but her efforts were in vain. She was had no choice but to turn back, and try the other side of the hall.

On the left the room had another vase placed on a table. After that there was a door, with a window beside it this time. Mary attempted to open it, but it was locked. She went to the end of the hallway where there was another painting, and a key lying underneath it. Mary excitedly reached down to grab it, not noticing the signs of danger until it was too late, and she heard the terrible snarling.

She should have seen the title, for now the Lady in Blue was on top of her, hurting her and pulling at her again. Mary held the key in her hand when she struck, creating a hard enough blow to make her escape. She turned to the room, swiftly unlocking it in enough time to close it on the Lady. She panted as she looked around the new room. It was small and empty, except for a stool with another key resting on top of it. Mary hastily grabbed it and wondered how she would make her escape with the Lady in Blue behind the door.

That was when she saw through the glass of the window, and realized what the feral painting would try to do. Mary took that chance to charge out of the room again, only narrowly avoiding the Lady as she reached the safety of the other side of the door once again. This time there were no windows to escape from, so she knew she must have been safe. Or maybe that was praying?

This time when she returned to the door, Mary found the knight was out of her way. She was swept with relief, although it occurred to her later that a moving statue should not be a relief to her. After all the things that had happened, Mary was glad to believe this statue was her ally.

"Thank you," she said, while she opened the door. It fortunately gave her no trouble and she was on the other side. The walls had changed to gray, and Mary was startled to see two hands sticking out of the ground, wiggling their fingers slightly as though they were indeed alive. The titles told Mary they were the 'Blessed Brides' left and right hands. Continuing the theme were portraits of a blessed bride and groom. She found it made her recall her own mother again, who always wore her wedding ring proudly.

"Congratulations," she found herself saying.

The room the hall led to was large. In the right corner Mary found more paper and ink and another small painting. Next to those was a door she entered and found filled with more statues. One was a wineglass made into some kind of seat; another was a large bust of a head. The lights began to flicker, putting her on edge, so she pushed past the strangely painted skeleton and finally reached the tree at the very end. Seeing nothing of value, she made her exit before the lights could play tricks on her.

Across a hall was a door she ventured in. She only stayed a moment as she saw not only was the inside mazelike, but there were red knight like statues moving around inside. If they were anything like the Lady paintings, she didn't want to think what they would do if they got their hands on her.

On the other side of the maze room Mary had to stop. Eyes were somehow starring out of the floor. They looked far to real to be works of art; but then again that wasn't the first problem Mary had encountered.

She picked up the ends of her dress and made note of where she stepped. Nearing the end of that corridor she began to see more small paintings lining the next wall, when something else drew her attention. All of the eyes were starring off except for this one, which was clearly eyeing a place in the wall before it formed a corner.

Mary tried to take a closer look, but the eye was in her way. She tried to lean past it, but managed instead to lose her footing. The 'oops' she uttered was probably not enough apology for the eye she stepped on, which slithered away across the floor. She had to repeat to herself to treat this like it was a game, like she was playing pretend.

Upon examining the wall, it gave way to a hidden passage of sorts, where Mary spotted something in the back. It was blue in color and had ragged black hair atop its head. Its eyes were a deep red color.

"It's cute," Mary made herself say. Dolls were cute.

Behind the doll, there was writing in red on the wall.

"Play with me?" it read. Mary was hesitant, but nodded before reading on. "Take these eye drops."

Mary approached the doll, and picked up the eye drops it mentioned. She thought they must have been for the eye she had just stepped on, an awfully kind gesture albeit suspicious the doll knew about it. The writing she found after told her she was wrong.

"Hide them!"

Mary felt bad for the eye, but nodded. She did not want to underestimate the doll. The fact that the it knew what had happened, part of her explained it could have been set up appear this way, but the rest of her believed it meant the doll was aware. In fact, it was sort of the only other 'living' thing she had encountered so far. It was the first one that hadn't attacked her, to say the least.

_Almost like… my only… friend,_ she thought. How she could think such a thing she immediately chastised herself for. The regret didn't stop the hope from forming in her heart. She was all alone in this place beside that. Even though her Friend was supposed to be here, she didn't know if Guertena would appear or not and honestly doubted it.

Mary continued the way she had been going before, turning the corner to see the wall covered with more small paintings, and one bigger one of a snake with a gleaming red eye. Beside it was a painting that was knocked over. It made her pause to consider picking it up, but she told herself to do so later.

The hall winded around the maze room, branching off to a dead end with only an eerie looking painting of some kind of blue face hanging on the wall. That wouldn't be a good place to hide something. She did notice however there was a door at the beginning, and since she did not want to return to the maze room if possible, she decided to take her chance there.

There were a number of stools and canvases, the latter of which she found she could not move. All the canvases had the same picture on it, which Mary saw resembled the eye drops. This must have been her place. She moved the stools out of the way as best she could, making use of the cluttered space to bring difficulty to anyone who might try and reach them.

Exiting the door Mary was greeted with a startling sight, as the reddish eye stared at her accusingly. She clutched her hand over her heart out of surprise, but all the eye did was slither across the floor, presumably back to the other eyes.

"Haha! Not much an eye can do," she realized.

Past the dead end hall was the corner where Mary had found the ink, so she returned to the doll to see what would happen now. It shouldn't have surprised her, to see the writing had changed. Evidently she needed to 'play' some more.

"That was great! Hide the ring," she read. Mary frowned slightly. What would her mother think if she knew what she was going to do, taking a wife's ring. It was a shame, but… Mother wasn't here right now. Mary smiled as she nodded in agreement, and returned to the portraits of the bride and groom.

She hesitated before her theft. She had smiled, but didn't really want to take the treasure. She had simply wanted the doll to know she would do it. Taking a quick breath, Mary reached for the ring, and slid it off the incompliant finger.

There was a distressed shriek that filled the room, causing her hands to fly to her ears, and Mary to scurry out of that room as quickly as possible. She would certainly not be returning there any time soon. A fearful laughter bubbled out of her chest, but the sound had faded once in the large room, and the ring was still in her grasp. Mary clutched it tightly; knowing how precious it was.

_Now where to hide it?_ she pondered. Her thoughts turned to the room with the statues. Certainly the lights had flickered in there, but that was still better than the maze room. Once there, she became weary of the lights again, but ended up in the back without trouble. She stuck her hand in the tree and made sure the ring was securely hidden. Mary hoped that was the end of playtime as she returned to the doll, becoming restless to move on.

"Did you hide the door?" greeted her when she returned.

Mary wondered how on earth she should do that. As if reading her thought the next section read,

"Try the switch in the maze."

She did not want to return to the maze room, but there wasn't much choice. She had already seen the doll's requests this far, and there wasn't much else left. Hoping against hope, she turned to the painting at the dead end hall. This one began to speak.

"Ehehe, hehehehehe… Flowers… flowers're nice… ehehe…"

"Yes, they are," Mary replied, unsure of herself but managing a cheerful demeanor.

Unfortunately that left the maze… Whatever this doll wanted, it was her only hope of progressing, and not getting stuck. There had to be an end. Bracing herself, she entered the maze like room again with a smile forced on her face. This was all part of the game she decided, and began her search.

She looked at all the corners, every inch she could find, but there was no sign the switch. Quite a few times she became backed into a corner by one of the statues, which showed no sign of stopping before they reached her, but somehow she maneuvered her way around them. This would have been the place to leave notes if she ever needed them, but she hardly had time being chased like this!

She grew tired of searching, but the doll wouldn't lie to her. There was no other hint at how to progress. Mary pushed herself to continue and almost came to regret her decision when she was cornered by two of the statues again, this time with no sign of how she would escape. She pressed herself against a wall where by chance she finally found it.

After she had pressed it, Mary pushed her way past one of the statues, earning scratches and possibly a good bruise where it grabbed her. She was still able to get past and made her way out of the maze as quickly as she could. Relief flooded her body when she saw the door was in fact gone, not bothering to question how.

Even if the doll were her real friend, she wasn't sure she could do much more of this. It had worn down on her, along with the rest of this cursed place. She had been motivated by her desire to quickly return home, but now that that had faded, Mary really wanted to rest. _How can I in a place like this?_ she realized. It would be much too dangerous.

Having her hopes of rest dashed, Mary went back to the doll once again. There was more writing for her, but she didn't let her will falter. This was an easy task.

"Hang the picture back up?"

Mary smiled again.

"Sure," she replied. She had wanted to do that anyway, and it was a harmless enough task. She went back to the small painting next to the snake, and held it for a moment. The ring incident began to bother her again, so she took her quill in hand.

"Behind the big tree…"

Now that it held her secret message, Mary placed the painting back cheerfully. A small tap noise caught her attention, alerting her the snake's beautiful eye had fallen. She swept it up quickly, concerned for the poor snake, and meant to put it back in its place. It occurred to Mary then, that this might be what the doll had intended.

Every other 'game' had been harmful to someone else. She didn't get how it worked, but… Just to see, Mary tried fitting the eye back in place, and found the painting fell of the wall instead. _Sorry, _she silently apologized as she returned the painting to the wall, and picked the snake's eye up after it popped out again.

She thought that perhaps she should bring it with her when she rejoined the doll. Mary noticed a flower by its little arms. _Where did that come from?_ She had been thinking about how nice flowers would look around this place, although it probably wouldn't help.

"That's pretty!" was written. "Want to trade?"

"Oh, yes," Mary accepted, handing over the snakes eye and taking the flower. She continued to read what was left.

"Thanks for playing!"

Mary smiled despite herself.

"Your welcome."

She wondered where she should put the flower. Maybe she should just take it with her; she really did like it! It was the only thing normal here beside her. It reminded her a bit of home. Only… she was still at a dead end. Which meant she needed to go to that painting? It had said it liked flowers… The grinning blue face greeted her again.

"Ehehe, hehehehehe… Flowers… flowers're nice… ehehe… Give me that there flower and I'll let you through… ehehe…"

Mary paused a moment. This was the right path, which meant she had to part with her flower.

"Ehehe… your flower, pretty please?"

She sadly handed it over.

"Ehehehe, thanks… It smells niiice… eheheh."

Mary smiled for a moment, before it spoke again.

"Well, chow time!"

She couldn't help but laugh uncomfortably as it devoured the nice flower.

"Ahhh, that was good… eheheh. Thank you, thanks so much… As promised, you can go through."

The painting began to transform into some kind of door.

"Just take this door in… Well, see ya… eheheheh!"

Mary did not speak to it again as she opened the strange door, and briefly entered a short hallway before passing through another door. The creepy sight that greeted her was another unpleasant surprise. All the manikin heads lining the hall and the large glaring paintings of what again seemed to be manikin heads were not a comforting sight. She grabbed the ink and paper waiting on the table for her before hurriedly moving towards the exit.

She couldn't help but notice how the center painting's eyes followed her as she went, but a burst of laughter escaped her when the last painting had no eyes at all. _Serves you right!_ she thought angrily. It was hard to remain kind all the time, especially when most things around the area only wanted to do her harm.

The rooms had become much larger than compared to when Mary had first entered the building, or wherever this was. This one almost had a maze like quality to it because of all the walls separating the room. At the bottom Mary found a colorful array of those knight like statues. She first bolted past them despite their lack of movement.

She stopped in front of a door beside a window and table having realized she was in no danger. That was when she saw them, and her eyes began to widen. _That can't be what I think it is… _but it was. A roaring deranged laughter sounded throughout the room. Who would have thought such a laugh could come from a young girl?


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** The original plot, characters, and other content of Ib do not belong to me.

* * *

They were everywhere. Mary laughed loudly, but she did not feel joyful. To her credit, she didn't quite feel scared either. Eventually the laughter died down, although it left a damaged smile on her face and unnecessary tilt to her head. There were so many portraits of the Lady's, in red and blue and yellow and even green.

She turned her back to them, not daring to go near them yet, although she knew it was only a matter of time before she would have to. _There are so many here to play with me,_ she grieved. _I can't possibly play with them all!_ Not that they would care about such things. With so many, the room would be full of them crawling about, dragging their frames by their hands.

Mary went back in the direction of the colorful statues, and farther up the room to see what else there might be. Two doors stood side by side to each other. The first required a code she would have to find. The second door was worse. There it was, just like she had known. It asked for how many paintings of women were in the room. Mary offered a few guesses, but of course they were wrong. This would be the prompt for her to approach the _wretched_ Lady's.

She saw there were more statues, as if the Lady paintings needed some kind of guard. Mary steeled her nerves, and kept the despair away from her face. There would be no place for the emotion to weigh her down when she would need to flee. Dashing across a row of them, Mary found a door locked on the farthest wall of the room.

She was being pursued by one of the paintings that had sprung off the wall. It was curious that not all of them seemed willing to give chase. Mary barely remembered to start counting them before running away from the feral thing. Upon rounding a corner she realized she had passed a painting that was not womanly, but could not go back to examine it just yet.

At the right moment, she returned to the odd painting out. It was called 'The Hanged Man', and did not lie. She found it quite morbid, and placed a hand gently on her mouth being struck with such a thought. She didn't give herself much time to stare, but the numbers did catch her eye.

Five, six, two, and nine had been on the Hanged Man's shirt. Mary hoped it would suffice as one of the codes she needed. One of the Ladies tried to give her trouble, but Mary tore away from her grasp, and delivered a firm kick to its face. The door on the left was the one she wanted to try.

Learning the code would not allow her entrance at first stumped her. She was certain those were the right numbers, there wasn't anything else like that in this room. Eventually the fact the Hanged Man hung upside down struck her, and using the ink and paper she was able to flip the numbers around.

She entered six, two, nine, five instead, and was rewarded with a click of the lock turning. This room was relatively small, and contained only a stool, a table holding a vase and a canvass with the vase's likeness. Once again Mary was stumped, but the vase atop the table seemed to be the key.

She still wasn't certain what did it in the end, but after moving the table around quite a lot, there was some kind of sound. Frustration turned to relief as Mary exited, but turned again to surprise. Seeing the manikin head so close made her jump.

"Oh, you followed me?" she saw, but at least it wasn't attacking her. "How sweet."

She attempted to enter the amount of women in paintings on remaining door, not wanting to stay in the room filled with them for long. The number she entered was wrong, sending Mary into a short temper where she kicked the door. It faded, and she resumed looking around the room for paintings.

On the top of the side where she had entered hung the remaining paintings, reminding her it would be good to look everywhere in the room, even if it took time. This time her number was correct, and Mary entered the near empty room. It was scarcely decorated, like its fellow.

There was another vase on the table, a small book filled shelf in the corner, and some kind of note tacked to the wall. _Could it be from Guertena?_ she hoped. Her heart was racing. Mary rushed to see what it said, but all it did was instruct her not to touch the exhibits. She was filled with rage again. _I will do as I please! _She shouted, albeit contained within her mind.

She beat her hand on the note to further satisfy herself, before turning to the bookshelf. Mary found one of the books was all but blank and wondered what had happened to it. Perhaps it was meant to be a journal. At least the pages looked unharmed. The papers Mary had collected along her way had gotten damaged a few times when she'd been attacked.

At least she kept finding more. She had plenty if she ever did feel like writing more notes. It wasn't exactly easy to find the time while all of this was happening, but it might be of some help, should anyone else need to get through this place. At first Mary had thought she would be coming back, but after this kind of experience, she only wanted to be home again, and for this to become a bad nightmare.

She hadn't noticed anything else in the room that would allow her to continue, so Mary returned to the room full of Ladies. She went back to side of the room where she had entered, and found one more door amongst the various walls.

The remaining doors in the center and right of the room were her best hopes. The center and easiest door to reach was locked. Mary had nearly become more annoyed with the Ladies she had to evade again than afraid of them. The door on the right of the room fortunately was unlocked.

Inside it was empty, save for a mirror. From outside Mary heard some commotion as she moved closer to take a look. The sight she was greeted with was a bit of enlightenment. She told herself she looked like such a mess. Her hair needed a combing, and her dress was out of sorts. It took but a moment of care for her to straighten up.

Somewhere in that moment the manikin head had moved again, and stood in the way of the only door. Mary was filled with fright, which faded while the smile donned on her face. She wanted to be mad. This thing had entirely freaked her out. It would be easy to shove and kick it out of the way.

_Oh,_ she thought, and told herself not to. That kind of violence was what had made her so untidy. She turned her back on it to look in the mirror again and reaffirm her resolve. Apparently it decided to join her. Its pale face hovered beside hers. The pupils of Mary's eyes must have shrunk as her mind turned to strange places it had never ventured before.

"You wanted to keep me company?" she gathered. "That was awfully sweet of you."

She pulled her thoughts out of that place. This game was getting to her, but she had come too far to loose now. Pushing past the manikin Mary exited the room, and was greeted by the Lady paintings once more.

"Hello," she called, though they paid her no mind until she entered their range. It was after she had made it to the center of the room that Mary noticed the key that had appeared. Where these things kept popping up from she had no idea! It would only be a little challenge to double back and retrieve it. She was getting better at playing after all. The Lady in Red that flew off the wall after she had the key in her grasp did not deter her.

It had been unexpected, but Mary swung her fist at it, and kicked the painting until she had a space to go past. The way she pulled at Mary's legs was unpleasant, but it was simply unavoidable. There was no way for her to leave this gallery without a scratch. She would fix her things again once she was safely away.

As a matter of fact that was harder than she had thought. Even more of the Lady paintings had sprung off their wall to drag against the floor in their efforts to reach Mary. It was becoming chaos, but for now she needed only to reach the next door. She hurried along, nearly getting cornered a couple times, but it wasn't a long distance to the center of the room.

The key fit in to the door at the center, allowing safety if only for the moment. She knew this was the room with the window, and the paintings were certain to try something if she stayed for too long. That meant she must quickly find the next clue.

In the center of the room was a couch nearly all white save for the red on the vine like pattern on the back cushions. A couple stools were around, as well as a canvas, and bookshelves along the wall. There hung a painting that made Mary stop and stare, even though she knew the danger lingering would bring.

It was something precious to her from the outside world. Just what would her parents say if they saw how she was behaving. It made her feel quite sheepish and ashamed, but certainly they would understand. She was all alone in this place, and there were many vicious creatures trying to bring her harm. Despite this, it was nice to see her family again after all this fear and violence.

She tore her eyes away from the portrait, and to the canvas. There was nothing special about it, but Mary wanted to say something, and began to write._ 'If you're tired, why not rest?'_ It was such a comforting place, especially when she could feel like her family was watching over her, but as if she could do that. _'You'll never be hurt again…'_

She was supposed to be in a rush, but there was nothing in here to do. Mary had looked all around, but the place was empty of any clues. It wasn't her favorite idea, but she needed to try retracing her steps. Maybe she had missed something. The doorknob stubbornly stuck when she tried to turn it, locking her inside.

_How can that be?_ She hardly had the moment to wonder, when something tried to get in. Mary backed away from the door as the noise grew louder, banging and rattling the locked door. _Oh no,_ Mary thought. Without that, where was she going to run. There was another window in the room, but a bookcase blocked it.

It was probably to her fortune. She wouldn't be able to break through it, but one of those paintings certainly could. The sound gave no sign of letting up, strongly motivating Mary to look for some place to escape. The room was nothing but a dead end, so her next hope would be to hide. Only a stool could provide that protection, and it would hardly suffice!

Mary squealed when much to her surprise, one of the paintings entered through the wall. It was slowly going, but more were sure to be followed by more. Her brain seemed to be racing, desperate for survival. _Come this way,_ she hoped, luring it away from the hole in the wall. As soon as it was far enough away, she made a mad dash around the sofa and to her 'freedom'.

She shrieked when she reentered the big room. More manikin heads had followed her to the room, and now not only Lady paintings, but also those knights were moving about in pursuit. She ran in the opposite direction. At least she had to keep them away until she knew where she was going.

The door on the right was the only one that hadn't been opened yet. As soon as she realized this, Mary charged for her goal. Much to her relief she saw the door was ajar and ready to let her through. Finally safe from the chaos of that room, Mary was able to catch her breath.

The rather large hallway was plain and gray, with paintings of those manikin heads on the wall again. The farther she went, the more the head seemed to cry a line of red tears. It smiled the more it cried, until the last painting where it became quite somber. Mary knew it was creepy, but she couldn't feel it in her heart anymore.

At the end of the hall there was a door, and stairs descending down. She entered the door first, containing a small room with a painting in the back. It was untitled. In the center of the room there were lots of bookshelves on each side of a vase atop a table. Mary went to the back where there was more paper and ink in the corner. Feeling like she needed more fun, she titled a paper 'Rules of the Art Gallery'.

"No loud conversation,

No photography,

No food or drink," she wrote.

"No touching the displays,

No fountain pens,

No leaving ever."

She finished with all that had happened in mind. She laughed to herself, smiling despite it all. Perhaps she needed to take a moment. On the shelf she found another blank book for her. _If I draw something, will you come to life too?_ she wondered. _Would you help me?_ Mary began to draw pictures, they weren't great, but they were hers. She spent a long time in that room, long enough to realize it had been a long time since she made the flawed decision of going into the lake.

Back then it had been almost time for diner, hadn't it? By now it must have been nearly past midnight. Mary needed to sleep. She kept telling herself that was impossible in this place, but would it be possible for her here? She was exhausted, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Certainly it had taken its toll on her. _I won't do it,_ she decided. She wasn't resting until this game was over, and she was out.

Down the stairs she went, greeted by a purple re-coloring at the bottom of the steps. It was honestly a nice change after so much gray. The room was still hall like, although there was a door around the first corner. She heard some kind of noise, and tried it, but it was stuck. There might have been something blocking it, but looking through the peephole revealed nothing. Although she had expected something monstrous to jump into her sights, it was too dark. Continuing down the hall, there seemed to be a light on the wall, but Mary passed it uninterestedly for now.

An area was roped off, and contained many colored knight statues and paintings and sculptures. Mary did not chance entering it, as it looked to be a dead end anyway. She was certain things would start to move if she drew too close. She was almost passed when the shelf caught her eye.

It might contain a clue she would need to press on. Mary reluctantly went back, and entered the suspicious area. No sooner than she had did some kind of pole pop up and block her way. Mary whirled around startled, but saw only one statue was moving thus far. _I can do this,_ she told herself, and began to move through the maze.

There were three paintings with switches, which Mary thought were her salvation. The first one she pushed only made another statue begin to move, to her horror. She did not dare press another, and made for the bookshelf instead. The book she found was hardly worth the trip. _Could this be?_ she marveled at what it implied.

'_It's said that spirits dwell in objects into which people put their feelings. I've always thought that, if that's true, then the same must be true of artwork. So today, I shall immerse myself in work, so as to impart my own spirit into my creations.'_

Could the diary belong to Guertena? If that explained why these artworks were alive and moving, what kind of feelings had her friend put into them? Not to mention, just what kind of sprit did Guertena have, to do this sort of thing? Mary hastily put the book on the shelf, when the need to escape the statue arose once more.

One of those switches had to be her way out. The green one was the only color that didn't match a statue, but when Mary pushed it the remaining statue came to life. It must have been the blue one then! Only now with all three statues moving, and so little place to run Mary was sure to die. They cornered her at least twice before she was able to get to the painting, but in a mad rush of her will to live, Mary was able to tear herself away and push past them.

Finally it opened a slot for her to leave, but she still needed to reach it. Along the way she was cornered at least once more, the things tearing at her clothes and hair, as well as clutching and scratching her limbs. _Useless!_ she realized outside. That had all been useless. She hardly cared if the mystery of the gallery was being solved; she only wanted to be out. Once she was, she would never come to see Guertena again!

She would have sworn to tell people about her 'friend', so Guertena and his creations could be destroyed, only she knew it wouldn't help, and Mary would be thought insane. She tried to brush herself off. At least her dress hadn't taken as much damage as she thought. It was mostly her that was shaken up. She stood up yet again, and walked around another corner.

A 'milk puzzle' hung on the wall, but Mary hardly spared it any concern. She needed to make note of things, so she wouldn't get stuck, but that didn't mean she needed to dwell over them. _Just like that maze,_ she told herself. _It's all part of the game!_ _Guertena just wanted to share that with me, _she made herself believe. The next picture seemed to move, it was called 'Fleeting Thoughts on a Moonlit Night,' but just like the last Mary hardly spared it any time.

The hall kept going. Mary stopped at another mirror hanging on the wall, before a door. She looked at herself again, worried about the way she must have looked. It was distressed, and not just in wear. She smiled, grasping her hands together, and trying to bring the light back into her eyes. _I will get out of here._

The first room was teeny, with one of those dreadful statues blocking the way, and a long switch hanging from the ceiling. Mary pulled it, and then promptly left. She had to go back to make sure, but the light near the stairs had turned on. It looked nice, but didn't do much else.

Another door had a password of some sort. She wondered what to enter, but saw that it was in fact open. It wasn't too hard to locate the word that had opened it, which Mary made note of for future reference. Inside there was a large painting in the center of the wall, and bookshelves on either side. Mary picked up a book, but hardly read a sentence or two before blushing brightly and shoving it back where she found it.

She did not try to read any more of the books after that experience, and moved on to the painting. 'Separation' the red and black painting was title. Mary was already alone, until the lights went off. She was terrified, and saw no way of returning the light. It wasn't that she could feel someone hurting her, or hear anything coming closer, but she strongly felt another presence in the room.

Mary was near tears once more. She hadn't felt this fear for a while now, having actually become used to the terrifying gallery. Regardless, she would not spend another second in this room. Outside the lights were still on. She cautiously peeked back to the other room, and saw it was no longer in darkness, and nothing was there.

She wondered what had set the lights off, although it wasn't the first place they had acted faulty. It might have been the light switch, which was the only thing she had messed with so far. To see if her guess was correct, she entered the other small room again. The switch was fine, but she noticed the statue was missing. Mary shivered.

The now reachable door led back to the beginning of the hall near the stairs. It was convenient she supposed, although not nearly worth all this trouble. She wanted to know where the statue had gone, but also did not want to find it again. Still, it was worth a quick look around. Only, instead of a knight, she found red footsteps leading to a door she had evidently 'missed' the first few times.

They were about the size of a man's, and although Mary almost hoped they belonged to her 'friend', she highly doubted it. It was scary, but it was worth investigating. Mary approached this new door, and entered against her hearts clear protesting.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **The plot, characters, and original content of Ib do not belong to me.

* * *

No one was waiting for her on the other side of the door, but that was really nothing new. This was the way where it seemed the previous hall continued. It was simply decorated, with only one painting hung on the wall. When the path split, the right side ended in a vase on a table. Mary moved closer to it, feeling sad again. She missed the flowers, and the grass and trees. Most of all, she missed her home. She could sit in her mother's lap on sunny days, while her father was away.

The best times were when she could pick whole bunches of flowers, just to lie in the sun and play 'Love me, Love me not,' for boys that didn't even exist. If she could just get out of this cursed gallery and back there again… but that wouldn't happen if she just stood around! _I have to finish playing,_ Mary reminded herself. It had worked for a time, pretending it was all just a game.

Maybe it would be better if she just forgot it wasn't one, and she believed all the scary things that tormented her were just normal, every day things. That would be quite a feat of her imagination! It wasn't as though she weren't already becoming used to the gallery's tricks. Maybe that wasn't as far away as she thought.

For now, there should be no more standing around dwelling on it. Mary turned around and continued down the remaining path. Ahead there were a few steps before the path split once again into two doors to choose from. 'Which one could it be?' she wondered, and made a note so the decision wouldn't surprise anyone.

This place had many splitting paths, so it shouldn't be a surprise. Mary was growing a bit tired of them. Anyway, she had more than enough paper to make notes, so why not? _It's a bit fun leaving them through the gallery,_ she thought. A painting in the middle of the doors was called 'Flowers of Jealousy'.

She begged the painting not to remind her of flowers again. It made her homesick, so she quickly went past the painting and to the door on the left. The room was set up rather symmetrically, with two short bookshelves, two large tables accompanied by some stools, and two long shelves of blue dolls.

"Oh!" Mary shouted.

She paused in thought. The large painting of the doll in the back was the most unnerving of them all. The rest of them didn't concern her oddly enough. As a matter of fact, she felt herself laugh.

"Thank you for helping me before," she spoke. "I didn't know there were so many of you!"

These were the same as the doll that had been her friend. The one she had met before had been quite nice. With so many of them, that meant Mary had many friends, right? The happiness that thought brought her made her laugh sincerely. _I have many, many friends in this room._

She approached the big painting of the doll. The only one that caused her heart trouble. 'Red Eyes' was the title it was given. Mary looked at it for a long time.

"They're lovely!" she finally told it. "Red is a wonderful color for you."

That much was true. Mary loved colors, and red was a good one. The deep dark blue of its fabric was beautiful too. She didn't leave time to stay and chat. Even with all these friends, she wanted to leave. Before she was out of the room however, one of the dolls got her attention.

She hurried to the fallen doll's side. On the floor beside it was a violet key. Mary looked at the doll. Was that the only reason it made this fuss?

"Were you lonely?" she asked it. "I'm sorry."

Mary gave the doll a hug, before putting it back on the shelf. She put on her best smile for the doll. She wouldn't come back, but… there must be something she could say.

"I might see you again," she assured it. "I don't think I'll find my way out yet."

It was sad, but it was true. Mary did not know when she would finally find the way out of this place. She hated it, and didn't want to think about it, but it was true. Nothing would tell Mary what was on the other side of the doors she opened, until she entered and saw for herself.

She was just crossing paths of the jealous flowers painting again to reach such a door, when a sound came to her ears. She stopped and looked at the painting again, where a red flower was now growing larger on the canvas. Vines were crawling their way up and around her. They were thick and ridden with thorns. She had to quickly move her way through them so not to be ensnared.

Her thoughts fled to her friends. With these vines in the way, Mary could not reach the dolls again. Finally when she found something good, even in this place…! Trying to tear the vines up was useless, revealing they were made of strong stone. At least she had escaped danger, but it was too bad about the dolls.

They were not normal, nothing in this gallery was, but Mary had come to like them. It just figured something would ruin her good mood. It had been so long since she felt happy. Jealous flowers they were called, well they had certainly acted jealously!

She had to continue, and used the key to open a door to a small room. It made her hold her breath seeing those knight statues again, but these seemed to be safe, for now. That left the numerous boxes to be investigated. There were lots of art supplies in the boxes, including colorful paper and crayons.

Mary decided to hold on to the crayons, but left the other things in their place. The last thing of interest was an unrecognizable sketch on another canvas. It became harder to see when the lights began to flicker. Her heart sped up, and she braced herself for a room full of moving statues. Once the lights stopped, only one red statue had moved to block the entrance.

She couldn't help wondering if it was the same statue as before, but decided not to push her luck. She supposed that meant she was to go forward out the other door. Another hall with many stairs paved the way in front of her. There were windows of some sort on one of the walls, which startled her when a shadow walked by.

She became on edge when the sound of steps reached her as well, pushing Mary to keep going. She became relaxed again when she saw it was only a red ball falling down the steps. That was the sound that had scared her. It broke at the end, and splattered into a red stain. At the top of the stairs was a painting titled 'Clown.'

It had two eyes, and even a star and a teardrop painted beneath them, but was suspiciously missing a bright red nose. Regrettably, she could guess what had happened to it. Quite a shame… Mary moved on, and entered the door located not far after that.

The inside room was strange, small, but with a hole in the center that blocked the path. There were several switches, and a moving painting of eyes on the wall. Like the box on the other side, it was all out of reach. At least, until the blinking painting complied. She couldn't say what did it. It slid down on the wall, and over the hole in the floor to create a bridge.

"Thank you," she said, to the painting or whoever was responsible.

This time she had been careful not to step on it's eyes, but the painting closed them as she crossed so there was no chance of injury. The box moved a bit once Mary was close, prompting her _not_ to look inside. She was confused by the triangle shaped object on the floor, but eventually settled on pushing it down the hole.

It didn't look like it would accomplish anything else. She just hoped that was the right thing to do. It had been a bit of rash thinking, which she hoped not to regret. After all, she certainly wouldn't go down that hole after it.

Moving right along, she left the small room and entered another very thin hall lined with lights. It was incredibly narrow, so she hoped to reach the end quickly. Was she becoming claustrophobic, or was it just the distrust she had for this whole gallery? Fortunately it was only one more turn before she could see the end.

The room she entered seemed rather large. Immediately she noticed the unhealthy looking red smoke coming out from the floor, and made a note not to get close. Another small table was closest to the entrance, and both her right and left stood doors. Ahead of her the room opened up even further. It was certainly a nice change from the narrow hall.

Mary approached the painting next to the top door, titled 'Fisherman'. It depicted a pleasant place for a fisherman to sit, but the actual person seemed to be missing. Typical of this gallery, she thought bitterly. Despite having put her in this mess, Mary realized she really did wish to meet Guertena. She decided to start with the door at the bottom, closest to the entrance.

The new room was small, and those manikin heads were waiting on tables. She refrained from frowning at them all, and looked at the painting of a woman first. _'Lady Without her Umbrella' _As long as it was not a Lady in some color painting, she didn't think it would attack her. In the bottom right corner she cautiously took the 'tree key' she caught sight of located next to a manikin. The manikin heads were still getting on her nerves, although they did nothing.

She hadn't paid them back for scaring her before. She had told herself to keep calm, and stay forgiving to them, but that didn't mean she couldn't play a little prank on them now. It was all in good 'fun,' wasn't it? She pushed it until it leaned and tilted and gravity took effect, pulling it to the ground.

She jumped back in surprise. Not only had the manikin fallen over, but red lines formed beneath the eyes as though it were crying blood. After a moment more of this, she had recovered, and moved on to the next, in the bottom left corner. What did she care if they were upset? They had upset her before.

It leaned and fell just like the first, but this time a hole had formed in the floor where it first hit causing more of that red gas to pool up. She wanted to quickly leave and get away from it, but that didn't stop Mary from addressing the last one on her way out.

"I'm sorry," she had grown concerned. "I didn't mean to do that!"

With that Mary rushed out of the room. Her brain told her to be afraid. The manikins had reason to take revenge on her. Her heart said otherwise. She couldn't make herself afraid of them. Surely, if it hadn't even broken… Maybe it had got its feelings hurt, but she had apologized! _It was nothing,_ she decided, and moved on.

The door across from that one was locked. She explored the rest of the room, finding a vase atop a table in the middle section, and another section on the left side. This section had another door at the top next to a painting. It was unlocked, so she entered the room. It was downright monochrome, as though all the color had been somehow sapped from the room. Mary looked at herself and saw that at least she still had her color.

There seemed to be a key on the other side of the room, but there was another very large gap in the middle preventing her from reaching it. All she had access to now was an eerie floating pallet and brush, and a canvas to be painted upon. Mary really hoped she wouldn't start seeing ghosts now. She would have to come back to it later, but for now she ventured to the door below it and found it was sadly locked.

She was about to leave, but noticed there seemed to be some place to put a name. First she tried 'Selfless guard,' which was the name of the painting beside it, but that was no good. It took a lot of searching around the room before Mary found something. "Marvelous Night," had been conspicuously scribbled on the wall, but it was in the same fashion as her doll friends from before. Hopefully she could trust it.

The access she was granted affirmed her hope. It seemed to lead to a little library. There were a few small shelves lining the back wall, and the whole room had been divided into two sections for some reason. Not like Mary was an architect or anything, so she hardly minded. The stories Mary found didn't interest her much, and one or two she did not like. The one that did finally draw her interest was 'Collected Works of Guertena'.

Only reading would tell her if it held any useful information. It contained Guertena's works in alphabetical order, much like it had promised. The details about the paintings she found were interesting, but didn't look like much help. At some point she began to read aloud. Mary shook her head, realizing she knew so little about Guertena. The farther she ventured, the more his mystery seemed only to grow.

She put the book back in it's place, and wondered about why there was a space missing a shelf, when the rest of the wall had been covered. A keyhole served as her answer. The tree key looked to be a perfect fit, although Mary couldn't say what it had done. When she went back into the main room again, the fisherman had appeared in his painting.

"There you are," Mary spoke to him. "Where were you all this time?"

The fisherman wasn't the only thing that had appeared. Somehow he had managed to catch an umbrella in that painting of his. _The lady without the umbrella,_ Mary remembered.

"May I?" she ventured.

It complied, and shifted until it had let the umbrella loose to land beside her. She said her thank you to the kind fisherman, and took the umbrella to the room full of manikins. Talking to the paintings like this was a sure sign she was not right in the head! It was, however, a comfort to her, keeping her loneliness at bay. Besides, she should be glad not all of them were wishing her ill.

The Lady must have been happy to have her umbrella, just in time for the rain in her painting too! Unfortunately for Mary, it began to rain outside of the picture as well. She covered her head with her hands, and fled the room again. It appeared the rain did not fall in the main room, thankfully.

It was as though the rain had cleared away that gas. That meant she would be able to progress again. Although it had been a bit confusing, she was glad to be back on track. Still the monochrome room remained. Mary had already explored it, but nothing special had happened there. She couldn't help but wonder how it could have served no purpose. She couldn't think of a room like that yet.

Returning to the room without color seemed the thing to do. She sincerely hoped she wouldn't need to do anything more, not as much because she was tired as because she could not think of anything left to do. _I _was_ tired though, _she thought pointedly, _but now I'm not._ For once her prayers were answered, and the room looked completely solved.

It's color shone through, and there was a lovely rainbow leading across the gap in the room. On the other side was a key just daring Mary to cross, but she didn't know if she could trust it. No, she decided that as long as she moved quickly she would be safe. Even if the floor fell out from under her, she would leap to the other side. Whatever it took, she was not stopping now.

Her resolved was unneeded, for the bridge made no attempt to disappear. Once she had the key, she left the room a joyous giggling mess. The end of this journey was near, Mary could feel it. It had her outright skipping to her next door. It turned out to be one near the beginning, which had been locked for some time now. The last one unavailable to her besides the one formerly surrounded by gas.

It had a funny picture of a face or head or something at the top, but Mary spent hardly any time looking at it before she trotted down the steps. A quick notice of the companion panting was all she noticed at the bottom of the steps, before purposely slamming into the door a bit and turning the knob.

_Huh,_ she noticed something amiss. It was stuck, and would not turn. No, more than that, it didn't feel locked per say. It felt more like someone was…

"Hello!" she screamed at the door. "Who's there? Let me in… Won't you let me in?"

Her shouting yielded no results.

"Open the door! Open the door!" she cried more desperately than before, letting go of the knob to pound her fists on the door. It wasn't like she could bang it open, but she was beating it hard enough the effort was certainly there. Her breath came in large gasps for a second, needing a recovery.

There was no one in this gallery. No one could hold the door open. It was merely stuck. _There's still the path where the gas was,_ she concluded. Mary tore up the stairs without another word, and let the door slam behind her. A quick stride brought her to the stairs revealed by the newest path. Mary jumped, letting out a little shriek in the process, having seen another knight, but this one was immobile as the last. At least it was for now.

"You scared me," her words came out as sharp laughter. It was not blocking her path, but Mary's suspicion prevailed. She charged past the statue before it could block her path. Just to prove her point, she stuck out her tongue and pulled her lower eyelid down, making a teasing face in it's direction.

_I'm really _enjoying _this now,_ she realized, racing down the steps. Such a funny thought to strike her. She suddenly told herself it wasn't. _Of course I am. This place was made to be fun! _She recalled. It became startlingly dreamlike soon after.

Mary almost thought she must have slipped unconscious. She had fainted from exhaustion, or that knight had got her after all… That didn't seem to fit her memory though, and it had only been a moment ago she was in the regular gallery. To strengthen her perception, she prepared to go back to the stairs.

Instead her eyes locked on a figure not far in front of her.

"G… Gue…" The name caught in her mouth.

How she longed for it to escape, but alas the sound would not come. There was no sign the other had heard Mary. While she remained utterly paralyzed and statuesque, it became farther away. Her body unfroze seeing the other was escaping her, and she silently gave desperate chase. Oh how her heart was pounding now, much more than it had before.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Last chapter! (I did say it wouldn't take me long, right?) Re-reading I see that yes, this story is definitely a little messy, but I hope everyone has still liked reading it. I don't have too much more to say.

I wrote an alternate to chapter four which I would be happy to share. The one in this story mirrors Ib and Mary's part in the game when they are separated from Gary, and the alternate I wrote mirrors Gary's part instead. It has it's interesting points (at least I think so).

I love getting reviews, so how about I let that be a reward if I get like five to ten reviews for this story? Does that sound fair? I enjoy getting feedback on how my writing is, and how I can improve, but it's fine to say whatever!

I think that's everything I wanted to mention (hopefully), so that leaves the disclaimer.

I do not own Ib, it's characters, it's plot, or it's original content. To my knowledge, Kouri is the rightful creator of the game (and I will leave this web address for reference as well: ). If I'm not aloud to do something I have done, please tell me or let me know somehow, and I will take action to remedy it. I really don't want to upset anyone or do anything I'm not supposed to.

* * *

She followed him at a pace faster than a walk, but still slower than a run. Why she didn't charge after the other and tackle it to the ground she didn't know. It or him? Sure everything in her heart said this was Guertena, but the gallery played tricks. And did he really deserve to be referred to as _him_ and not _it_ anymore? Actually, just a moment ago her scenery had convinced Mary this was just a dream.

The stairs had become too narrow for more than one person to walk side by side, and there was nothing that seemed to attach to them. As a matter of fact this seemed to be in the night sky, if the stars surrounding were to be trusted. Burst of colors, or they might have been shooting stars, flew past her body. She flinched every time they got to close.

When they got to the end, her entire system became ridden with panic spreading like thin roots burrowing into her muscles. There were no more paths. The stairs just stopped, but the figure hadn't. It was becoming harder to see, escaping Mary and her sight. _No!_ her mind screamed. Her eyes were wide open, as her mind fled to a scattered and torn form of thought again. They still managed to pick up a piece of paper swaying back and forth before it floated away.

It was so blank. Everything here, save for the supplies she had found had something on it. Was that why the path had ended too? Mary had worked too hard to let it end here. She took out the crayons and colorful papers she had brought with before. Smiling and positively radiating gratitude for her idea.

She scribbled hard and fast, starting with the pink, and aiming as best as she could for the other's disappearing trail. It began to work. A path formed in front of her as though it had always been there. She could no longer see the other, but she could still progress. That was the most important thing.

Mary continued to scribble, coloring more fully and with certainty. It wasn't very pretty, but who cared! She could use this to explore the oddly empty surroundings. She would find the other. After going through the gallery all alone she wouldn't let it get away so easily. Her smile never faltered, remaining an odd mix of gapping out of exhaustion, and either adrenaline or a daze.

She made paths up and down, and left and right. They led all around, and she started to think she would be stuck, but Mary connected them all somehow, and created a nice surface to search on. All that was missing was the figure she had pursued. _I just have to think outside the box, _she encouraged herself.

Instead of just looking left and right, maybe Mary literally needed to go up or down. But using plain old stairs were too boring, right? This had to be the last stretch, so why not have some fun with it. Mary was in control right now. She thought outside of the box by thinking inside the box, and made a nice spot to draw a box. The black crayon was the key to creating the pit that would take her down.

She hardly concerned herself with how she would get back up. After all, she was such a clever girl! That was how she made it this far. Mary could figure something out. She hated the thought of moving backwards at this point anyway, and was quite confident she would catch the figure, now that she had figure out his trick.

"I'm coming!" was her cheery warning before lowering herself into the box.

She fell all the way down through the darkness, and didn't care about the landing. Now, she did realize that she might need to _draw_ a place for her to land again, so she quickly outlined a room on black paper in white. This was the key to hitting solid ground again, and she did so quite suddenly. Mary picked herself back up, one step at a time, until she was moving and on her feet a little. Even if she stumbled at first, it hadn't hurt much! Nothing could stop her now!

The room was pitch black, as though it was nothing but empty space again, but her scribbles served their purpose. Despite its looks it had solid form, so she was free to move around again. There were a couple dolls waiting for her down here. _Did you come to see me off?_ she wondered. It was impressive how far they had come! She thought her crayons could do good work here too, since this room was so blank, but this was hardly the time!

The other must have sensed that she was getting close again, which meant it would be on the run again. Giggles rolled off of her tongue as she began the chase again, at first going up in circles until she drew a new path to take. She switched off between running and skipping, returning to her giddy glee. It was nervousness, or excitement, or thrill she was running on, _something_ like that but exactly what she couldn't tell.

Up was the only way she could go, but soon She realized her path returned to the old one, and she had walked in a circle. Not a moment spared on disappointment, or moping around. She continued on with her plan. If it wasn't down then it had to be up, so she spared her imagination the work and traced some stairs out of pink. Oh yes, there was something here all right.

She couldn't see what, and it didn't _look_ the same, but Mary drew herself towards it regardless. There was something she couldn't believe. Blonde curls, brushed and pretty. Green dress, orderly and neat. Not a tear on her clothes, just the way she'd wanted it. It was like staring into her reflection, but it wasn't a reflection.

It was a painting, her painting, complete with it's own title card. Her little arms shook. Her breathing was drawn out, but oddly quiet. Her face was hot, and her eyes felt dry. Mary's hand drifted up as if to touch her image, but she shrieked as though she hadn't been the one in control of that hand.

All of the stillness broke in that moment, filled and replaced by the pounding, the cracking, the screaming, the flailing, and everything breaking. Little pieces lied messily in front of it. It was gone, but the pain was there. Her heart broken into pieces, with a kind of fear and dread that needed no explanation. She hadn't received a word of what this painting was to mean, but it was more terrifying than anything she had ever seen.

_It's me._ Mary finished the outline of the room, leaving some form of shelter, and hastily made her exit. She wasn't done yet.

"Where are you?" her voice roared, or did it crack?

She ran out of the room, with all the smiles, the wide eyes, the erupting laughter returning and growing stronger as she distanced herself from that place. She had gone down, and she had gone up. Where else was there to go? What she needed was… a door! It was easy to draw one of those!

Finally, this was what she wanted. Mary ran though the little room she'd found, down the steps two at a time if she could manage, tripping and stumbling as she tried. It grew so dark she could hardly see where she was going. She reached a hall, and then a different type of building. There was more to be seen here, but she skipped past it all.

Once more, it all came to a stop. She froze, just from a glance of him before he merged with the wall. How he did it, Mary didn't get to ask. She raced over to the painting, and realized. _Could this be it?_ Her breath shakily passed through her smiling lips. _Could this be the exit? _She reached a delicate hand out.

She felt the cool touch of paint on canvas. The frame around it was like a golden cage. Had it been there before? Mary pushed harder. She placed another hand against the painting, and then her whole body shoved against the unmoving wall. She began to knock as though it were a door, and then pounded again, swinging with the whole length of her arms like she had so desperately before.

"Guertena…? Guertena!" she cried, and shouted for such a long time. Tears had streamed down her face. _Tears of joy!_ She smiled so hard she thought her face was going to break. At some point those hysterics had become laughter. It hurt to have so much fun!

Her laughter rang through the gallery again. It was a wicked sort of unending laughter. It came unwanted, and would not go away. She tore away from that place. Her legs carried her back through every room, every hall, and every corridor. She raced without care for the paintings, the statues, and the creeps that had done her harm.

She hardly remembered such times! With a smile this wide she couldn't think of anything but good times. Fun thinking hard to solve puzzles, and other times where she looked at her friends' pictures or drew pictures herself, and others still being chased or chasing and playing hide and seek. She ran so many times back and forth through the place.

It was hard to keep everything strait, especially when she could hardly see strait! Her eyes were most _definitely _open though; they were wide open and absolutely glaring with her attention. The eyes were like portals to the soul, or something like that. Hers must have shown how happy she was. She felt so giddy inside, like there was so much pent up in her little body she would explode. Of course she didn't want _that._

She made many trips back and forth. Exactly how many was a little hard to say. It was hard to keep track of the time either. There was no way to see the day or the night from here. Only to catch glances outside. It wasn't for very long or very many. She had so much to do here after all. No time to take her eyes away.

Playing in the gallery was so much fun! She loved seeing her friends, and going through the puzzles, although most of them were troublesome to reset. It was worth it to be able to play again. Then her favorite part was special to her. It was unique to her. She could do whatever she liked there! _I'll put a house here… and of course it needs decorating!_ She had lots of work to be done.

Her friends had come to see once or twice. She was so happy to have their company. Her smile mirrored theirs. It was always so cheerfully plastered on their face! _Flowers would look so wonderful._ She frolicked through her place. This was really the best wasn't it? She could play house, or in the garden. Like she was living the memories planted inside her head. _Exactly _where those images had come from was a little sketchy….

"You won't hurt me now, right? You'll be my friends! Because… You'll be like… my big sis!"

Time and time again she could come and work on it. _Hmm… it need something more here!_ It grew and became something she was so proud of. It was nothing compared to the artistic beauty of the rest of the gallery, but it was still impressive. Her own play place, and her friends often brought housewarming gifts. She was free to play all day long.

She liked watching them too. The ones she could see on the outside. It didn't always click in her head, the connection between here and there. It seemed so familiar. She longed to be there so badly, but couldn't understand why. Why would she want to leave from some place so wonderful? The gallery was such a horribly _fun_ place.

She loved watching them though. She wanted to be with them, and live in _that_ place. The desire was stuck in her heart, someplace deep where nothing could change it. Nothing could smother it. Nothing could destroy it. She had watched the artist in that place, watched as he spread the paintings she so easily found in the gallery.

The paintings and sculptures grew in numbers, and the more she could see. They grew beloved and revered, and soon a collection started. She watched as a new gallery formed on that side, so much more boring than this one, but she did want to visit. She wanted to be there. She wanted to leave.

That was nothing but a dream, a childish impossible dream. But it wasn't impossible, was it? There was a connection between here and there. She had crossed it before. It had been done before, so it could be done again, right? That was when they finally came. There was something special about them. The man, and the girl.

"_I like the visitors coming in to live with me, but… I want to leave this place myself and live outside! But unless I take the place of someone from outside, it seems I can't do that… Won't somebody come soon? Won't somebody come soon…"_

They were coming right? Mary could see them. She couldn't wait to have fun with them! She was so excited. She even drew them as best she could, using her favorite crayons of course! Tall, and short hair, and blue. She loved that color! Brown hair, and such a cute uniform. She drew Mary's attention like a moth to a light.

She came here with her parents. They looked… very happy together! It made Mary laugh, very gently with happiness. _She's… _She must have been interested in the Art, or at least that's what Mary thought. _Just like…_ They weren't far in age, perfect for playing together. _M__e. _Together, the word alone made her feel so… good! She felt warm and joyful.

There was much preparing to do, and then all of her dreams could come true. _I have to protect it, _she remembered. It had been so long since her first visit. Something was waiting for her, upon her arrival. _Roses, I always wanted roses!_ She picked it up and gracefully made her exit. Then she drew them in the faint yellow shade of her blonde hair, the same as the one she picked up, with vines that entwined around the entrance. No one would be able to pass it.

It would only be a short time now, as a matter of fact! In just a few more moments, the events would start to unfold. Then they could be together. Forever. _I can't wait to meet you… Ib._


End file.
